Open white cardboard box on a table

Bigby vs Dropbox: an honest comparison

Dropbox built its reputation on sync that just works, and that reputation is deserved. Bigby is built on a different promise: your files stay encrypted on UK servers, under UK law, with a company that never opens them. Here is how the two stack up, including where Dropbox is plainly better.

See the comparisonBigby plans

Side by side

Pricing checked August 2026. Dropbox prices change periodically and vary between monthly and annual billing, so treat theirs as approximate.

BigbyDropbox
JurisdictionUK company, UK servers, UK GDPR. No US parent, no CLOUD Act exposure.US company. Data subject to US law, including the CLOUD Act, wherever stored.
Content accessNo scanning. Bigby does not open, scan or read stored files.Dropbox holds the keys and can access content; files are processed for features and integrations.
AI and your filesStored content is never used for AI training or analysis.AI features such as Dash process file contents; third-party AI integrations available.
Business modelSubscriptions only. No advertising, no free tier, no investors to feed.Subscriptions, plus a publicly listed company with growth pressure and an expanding product surface.
EncryptionEncrypted in transit and at rest on UK servers. Bigby holds the keys under UK jurisdiction to support in-browser document editing on Office plans. Full, user-managed End-to-End Encryption is supported for all users via third-party apps for the Just Files plans (and Office plans for files that don't need in-browser document editing).Encrypted at rest and in transit; Dropbox manages the keys under US jurisdiction. Built-in End-to-End Encryption is offered on their Advanced tier only.
Price for 1TB£9.99 per user per month (Storage plan, annual billing).Plus plan is 2TB for around £7.99 per month. Roughly twice the storage for less money.
Free tierNone.2GB free.
DocumentsBigby has its own office suite. The Office plans include Collabora documents, spreadsheets and presentations, editable in the browser with live collaboration with other users.Dropbox Paper, plus tight integrations with Microsoft Office and Google Docs.
Sync and mobileWeb and desktop. Sync is solid; mobile apps not yet available.Best-in-class sync, selective sync and polished mobile apps. This is Dropbox’s home turf.
Exporting your dataWebDAV, standard tools, no export fees.Straightforward via desktop client or web download.

Choose Dropbox if

Sync quality is everything

Fifteen years of refinement show. Selective sync, smart sync, conflict handling and mobile apps are the most polished in the industry. If your workflow lives and dies by sync, Dropbox earns its keep.

You need more space for the money

Dropbox Plus gives you roughly twice the storage per pound compared with Bigby. For large media libraries where privacy is not the concern, that arithmetic matters.

Your team already runs on it

Shared folders, third-party integrations and muscle memory across a whole organisation are worth real money. Migration has a cost, and sometimes staying put is the rational call.

Choose Bigby if

Your files should stay in the UK

Dropbox is a US company, so your data answers to US law no matter where the servers sit. Bigby keeps everything on UK infrastructure under UK GDPR, with no US entity anywhere in the chain. For client records and confidential work, that distinction is the whole decision.

You want storage without AI ambitions

Dropbox is pushing into AI-powered search and assistants, which by definition process your content. Bigby’s position is simpler: stored content is never scanned, analysed or used for AI training. Not as a setting you toggle, but as the design of the business.

You want docs included

Dropbox stores files; for editing you bolt on Microsoft or Google. Bigby has its own office suite, so there is nothing to bolt on: the Office plans include Collabora documents, spreadsheets and presentations on the same private servers, from £5.99 per user per month. One subscription, no third-party processing.

Frequently asked questions

Bad is the wrong word. Dropbox encrypts data and has a reasonable security record. The issue is structural: it is a US company that holds the encryption keys, can access content, and is building AI features that process what you store. If none of that troubles you, Dropbox is a fine product. If it does, you want a provider whose legal position and business model are different, which is what Bigby is.

Your Dropbox folder is already an ordinary folder on your computer, so the simplest route is to copy it across with the Bigby desktop client or upload it through the web interface. For larger moves, connect to Bigby over WebDAV and copy everything with a standard sync tool. No conversion needed; files transfer as they are.

Scale, mostly. Dropbox runs storage for hundreds of millions of users and prices accordingly. Bigby is a small UK operation running UK infrastructure, and the subscription is our only revenue. We would rather charge an honest price for a private service than chase Dropbox on cost per terabyte, because we cannot win that race and do not intend to run it.

Yes. Shared folders, per-user accounts and browser-based document editing cover the core of how small teams use Dropbox. The Group plan gives three or more users the full Office tier from £4.99 per user per month. What you give up is the long tail of third-party integrations; what you gain is client data held in the UK under UK law.

Private storage, built in the UK

Encrypted UK cloud storage from £3.99 per month. No scanning, no AI training, no US jurisdiction.

See all plans

Annual or monthly billing · All prices in GBP · UK data residency · GDPR compliant